Day 16 - Is this family ever not on holiday?
It strikes me that you may think day 16 of a holiday may be too much. Having lived through it, I can assure you it isn’t. I highly recommend it if you have the means. Narrator: Stop showing off and get to the report.
This morning didn’t quite live up to the potential of last night. There was a bit of snow falling as we drifted off to sleep, but it mustn’t have been for long at village level as not much seemed to have accumulated when we went downstairs.
Leaning on our host’s largess once again, we jumped into one of Peter’s three vans for the short drive over to Suginohara, hoping to be on one of the first gondolas. This was not to be the case, as when we arrived at 8.15am, the gondola was already running, and there were already a not insignificant amount of people coming down the mountain. Maybe they run early on public holidays?
The ride up revealed maybe 5cm of fresh snow increasing to maybe 7-8cm at the top. It’s not much but it was enough to soften the icy hard pistes a bit.
The morning session was a lot of fun, with enough snow to make having wider skis worthwhile, though it was still a bit patchy at the bottom areas.
The snow started falling and continued on and off again as we played in the limited powder while it was still there.
About 10am the mist started to gather in bands at various altitudes, making the runs a little more interesting, and causing a little bit of congestion as groups tried to stay closer together than usual.
We then decided to move over to the other side of Sugi and were greeted with wide open runs that were very fun to carve.
There were still bands of mist working their way through too, but it didn’t take away from the great time being had by all.
It felt like our mountain again after the craziness of Kanko yesterday.
The summit chair (the one that looks like it has yellow coat buttons stuck on the side) rarely had a queue, but the temperature noticeably dropped when up there. Brrrrrr.
With the pistes still carving well, we went to lunch early, hoping to miss the rush and return to the slopes while everyone else ate.
For lunch we ate at the little village near the base of the quad on the far side. I don’t know their names, but we went to the yellow wall one. We chose it as the two closer ones didn’t have meals for everyone due to dietary requirements.
The menu looked good.
The food looked (and tasted) better.
After lunch we did more of the same, though the lower sections started getting sticky.
By 2.30pm it started getting sleety and more of the lower areas had been badly tracked out. In particular the section in front of where the bus stop is was looking very brown and large dirt patches had been exposed. With the moisture and the dirty snow it started getting so grabby that it was time to head home.
A decent haul of runs for what is essentially spring skiing.
While lining up for the bus it started really snowing with large light flakes, and continued for most of the afternoon. We saw at least 2cm on top of the roofs that were bare in the morning.
Even as we walked up to Lamber Jack 2 for another okonomiyaki dinner it was still falling. It’s eased a bit as I write this but there is still light falls.
Fingers crossed for a nice white blanket awaiting us tomorrow!
It strikes me that you may think day 16 of a holiday may be too much. Having lived through it, I can assure you it isn’t. I highly recommend it if you have the means. Narrator: Stop showing off and get to the report.
This morning didn’t quite live up to the potential of last night. There was a bit of snow falling as we drifted off to sleep, but it mustn’t have been for long at village level as not much seemed to have accumulated when we went downstairs.
Leaning on our host’s largess once again, we jumped into one of Peter’s three vans for the short drive over to Suginohara, hoping to be on one of the first gondolas. This was not to be the case, as when we arrived at 8.15am, the gondola was already running, and there were already a not insignificant amount of people coming down the mountain. Maybe they run early on public holidays?
The ride up revealed maybe 5cm of fresh snow increasing to maybe 7-8cm at the top. It’s not much but it was enough to soften the icy hard pistes a bit.
The morning session was a lot of fun, with enough snow to make having wider skis worthwhile, though it was still a bit patchy at the bottom areas.
The snow started falling and continued on and off again as we played in the limited powder while it was still there.
About 10am the mist started to gather in bands at various altitudes, making the runs a little more interesting, and causing a little bit of congestion as groups tried to stay closer together than usual.
We then decided to move over to the other side of Sugi and were greeted with wide open runs that were very fun to carve.
There were still bands of mist working their way through too, but it didn’t take away from the great time being had by all.
It felt like our mountain again after the craziness of Kanko yesterday.
The summit chair (the one that looks like it has yellow coat buttons stuck on the side) rarely had a queue, but the temperature noticeably dropped when up there. Brrrrrr.
With the pistes still carving well, we went to lunch early, hoping to miss the rush and return to the slopes while everyone else ate.
For lunch we ate at the little village near the base of the quad on the far side. I don’t know their names, but we went to the yellow wall one. We chose it as the two closer ones didn’t have meals for everyone due to dietary requirements.
The menu looked good.
The food looked (and tasted) better.
After lunch we did more of the same, though the lower sections started getting sticky.
By 2.30pm it started getting sleety and more of the lower areas had been badly tracked out. In particular the section in front of where the bus stop is was looking very brown and large dirt patches had been exposed. With the moisture and the dirty snow it started getting so grabby that it was time to head home.
A decent haul of runs for what is essentially spring skiing.
While lining up for the bus it started really snowing with large light flakes, and continued for most of the afternoon. We saw at least 2cm on top of the roofs that were bare in the morning.
Even as we walked up to Lamber Jack 2 for another okonomiyaki dinner it was still falling. It’s eased a bit as I write this but there is still light falls.
Fingers crossed for a nice white blanket awaiting us tomorrow!